'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎186] (205/622)

186
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
ber, when Governor Grey landed at Kororarika, and, after some
negotiations with the two chiefs, which proved abortive, it was
decided that an advance should be made on Kawiti's pah, which
was situated about eighteen miles inland. The Governor re
turned to Auckland in the 4 Elphinstone,' which had left behind
her a party of seamen, with two field pieces, and her marines,
consisting of fifteen Europeans of the Bombay Artillery, under
the command of Lieutenant G. W. Leeds, first-lieutenant of
the 4 Elphinstone.' On the 8th of December, this detachment,
with three hundred soldiers, under command of Colonel Wyn-
yard, of the 58th Regiment, embarked on board the transport
4 Slain's Castle/ and proceeded to the mouth of the Kawa Kawa
river, at its junction with the Waikari, about four miles from
the Bay, where H.M.S. 'North Star,' twenty-six guns, was lying
at anchor. Here the detachments w T ere landed, and, on the 10th,
the remainder of the troops having arrived, the march inland
commenced.
As the boats w T ere insufficient to carry the whole force, one
hundred and fifty men marched by land on the left bank of the
river; great difficulty was also experienced in transporting the
heavy guns and stores, owing to the lack of bullocks and drays.
Colonel Despard had neglected to make roads, and effect the
necessary reconnaissance before the advance of the force, as we
have seen Sir Garnet Wolseley did with such good effect in the
Ashantee War—so that it was not before the 22nd of December,
that one division, five hundred strong, including one hundred
and fifty seamen, with three guns, took up a position cutting off
Heki's approach to Kawiti's pah, and the remainder of the
troops, seven hundred in number, encamped in a high com
manding situation about three-quarters of a mile from the pah
at Ruapekapeka. Owing to the nature of the country this slow
progress was unavoidable. "At one place," says the Com
mander of the force, 44 the troops were obliged to move in single
file, the path being very narrow, and on both sides covered
thickly with ferns, two and three feet in height, mixed with a
description of brushwood, called tea-tree, six and seven feet
high. The country was a constant succession of hills, many of
them extremely steep." At another place there was an almost
perpendicular ravine, so that a new road had to be opened for
the guns 44 by cutting away the bush and burning the fern," and
Colonel Despard adds, "it frequently required fifty or sixty
men, in addition to a team of eight bullocks to each gun, to get
it up the hills and through the woods." H.M.S. 'Castor
arrived on the 15th of December, when one hundred men
marched up country to join the Expedition, and, on the 20th ot
December, the 4 Elphinstone' anchored in the Bay on her return
from Auckland, with the Governor on board, when a second party
of forty seamen immediately marched to join Colonel Despard.